The following computer-generated description may contain errors and does not represent the quality of the book:The Legend. It is claimed that the game of Russian Bank was first played in China in the twelfth century. This claim is based upon certain well-established facts, reasonable assumptions and shrewd guesses. The year is fixed by a statement of the French missionary Evariste Regis Hue, on Page 271, Volume I, of his Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China where he says: Lastly, playing cards into the origin of which so many learned antiquarians would not have busied themselves to inquire, were it not that it marked one of the first applications of the art of engraving on wood were invented in China in the year 1120. Other equally famous travellers and archaeologists ascribe the invention to other countries and earlier times; but it is evident that this does not invalidate Hues statement. The Chinese inventor may never have heard of the cards said to have been used in India as far back as the year800